Artemis
Artemis was a cruel, pitiless goddess. She was the child of Zeus and Leto and was born on the island of Delos. Her mother, Leto, had angered Hera because Zeus had made her his newest wife. When Hera heard that Leto was expecting twins, she ordered all of the lands on Earth to refuse her shelter. Leto wandered until she came to the island of Delos. Because it was still floating, it was not land, so Leto was allowed to stay there. Still, Hera tried to find a way to stop her from having children, so she refused to let the Goddess of Childbirth, Ilithyia, go to Leto. Without her present, no child could be born.
The other gods and goddesses felt bad for Leto, so they tried to tempt Hera with a beutifil necklace of amber and gold. They told her that she could have it only if she let Ilithyia go to Leto. Hera could not resist and gave in, letting Ilithyia help Leto.
Artemis was Leto's first child. Her twin, Apollo, was born right after her. At their birth, their father gave them each a quiver of arrows. Artemis's were soft and painless, but Apollo's were hard and piercing.
As a newborn goddess, Artemis went to her father, Zeus, and asked that he grant her one wish. She wanted to remain forever a wild maiden who would never marry. Zeus agreed to this, and the little Artemis asked for fifty nymphs to be her companions and a pack of hounds to help her hunt.
Each night, Artemis went with her nymphs and her dogs. After hunting, she would bathe in a pool in the woods. One night, a hunter by the name of Actaeon came to the pool where she was bathing. He knew that he should have run away, but he was spellbound by the sight of the goddess.
Artemis, furious, dipped her hand into the pool while the nymphs covered her with a tunic and threw the water at the man. As soon as it touched him, he was transformed into a stag, and his own hounds killed him, never knowing that it was their master. Artemis felt no pity towards him.
"No mortal shall live to see Artemis bathing," she boasted, and continued with her hunt.
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